I posted this on finds too, but thought I should add this to the official velvet thread. This is a Bill Erwin I picked up yesterday. One thing I am curious about is the distinction between and original and copy. Is there a way to tell if the velvet is a copy? Is a copy printed onto the velvet vs the original being hand painted?

The back of the frame has a H C&D (Google says this is Honolulu Construction and Draying) tag it, with a Lot # and an article #. I guess this is some sort of shipping info.

I don't know if Erwin did copies of his own work. He sometimes copied (with variation) other peoples stuff but I don't know and have not seen copies of his own work. Leeteg was the king of copies as his "originals were done by himself several times and he also had "authorized' copies from Davis galleries in Honolulu that were executed by artists in Japan and the Philipines. Davis also did copies on velvet paper and paper prints and these authorized prints are rare and seldom come up for auction. I have seen other artists like Erwin do a copy of Leeteg's Diamond Head by Moonlight, and Lavisse & Bouvier do Leeteg's "Ukelele Boy". Even Tyree did a copy of Leeteg's famous "Hina Rapa" except he used his wife as the model. Tyree made a point of marking the back of his paintings with "No Copies"

I was fortunate enough to come across my second Burke Tyree velvet recently... this one is in somewhat rough shape right now - the velvet has pulled away from the frame in spots. I'm hoping to find an art conservator who can bring it back to it's original glory.